Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Let Them Paint

I, like many home school moms, can attest to the fact that home schooling while having a toddler in the mix can be among the biggest challenges for a home school family. It helps to have a plan. Just as we might write lesson plans for our school aged children, toddlers need a lesson plan. I do admit that I do not do this in any formal way. It might actually help if I did, but I don't. I do keep a box of manipulatives and small activities for Baby Wingnut in our hall closet that are only used during school. He actually wants to sit at the kitchen table with me in the mornings as I teach Special K. He has stickers, flash cards, sewing cards, colored chips to sort, a dry erase board to draw on, and he also loves to count pennies. If I can manage to keep him quietly occupied for the 45 minutes it takes to work with Special K every day, it is a successful day. As he grows older we have more successful days than frustrating days.

This morning, Stat Boy set Baby Wingnut up with a sheet of butcher paper, a box of gel paints, and covered him rather well with an apron. Today was a successful home school day.

*Don't you just love his little tongue sticking out with such concentration and determination?